Pedro L. Mangabeira Albernaz

On December 22 my wife and I, accompanied by my youngest daughter, her husband and her two children − the boy  2 years and a half and the girl 9 months old – flew from São Paulo to Salvador and then took a boat to Mar Grande, a small city in the island of Itaparica. We went to the house of very good friends. Many years passed since we were here for the last time, but we used to come here very often. In fact my youngest daughter and my friends' children grew together. Now that we are again together it is obvious that nothing changed. The girls that I knew when they were children, now married and with children of their own, treat me like a second father, with an indescribable amount of friendliness and warmth. My daughter is just like a sister to them. I am now at the veranda looking at the sea, that is just a few meters away. Across the sea a beautiful view of the city of Salvador, where my parents grew. The view is magnificent, the sea is calm, the sounds that I ...

My friend Bill House passed away on Friday, December 7, 2012, at his home. He was 89 years old. I have already written a page in this blog, where I stated that he was my guru, my otological model, my friend. Bill's autobiography -- one must read it It is not difficult to write about a great physician, about a man who revolutionized ear surgery and is recognized all through the world as the “father of surgical neurotology.” It is much more difficult to write about the loss of a very dear friend. We have been together many times, in many different places. I visited him in Los Angeles on several occasions, watching his operations, learning new techniques and new tricks.  My wife and I would often stay at his house in Whitier, as well as in the one in Newport Beach, after he left Los Angeles. He came to Brazil several times, to São Paulo, to Rio, to Salvador, to Belo Horizonte, to Brasília, almost always with his wife June. In São Paulo they would stay in our house. I remem...